Divided we fall.

There's been a dust up over at 43rd State Blues. It started here with a post by Sisyphus, but got nasty when Binkyboy levied a personal insult against Julie Fanslow. Some soul searching by one of the site's owners here, and a long discussion of 43rd's philosophy and a bit of navel gazing here. TVA wrote in a comment that he was done with 43rd State Blues. TUBOB likened the controversy to a tempest in a teapot. Worth a read.

Also, when viewed from a bit of distance (I tumbled onto the dispute a bit late, having been decisively engaged for the last week) it reveals something about Minnick and Idaho blue politics. And that is, his DINOness is causing a schism on the left.

There are two camps. One is, as long as he's got a D by his name, I'll support him. The other is, I voted for him because I wanted to elect a Democrat.

The first camp says, Walt's not really doing any harm by voting R so often. Dems in Congress have sufficient adequate majorities so they don't need his vote. Also, they argue, being a D means he has access that he can use to help his Idaho constituents. Finally, having him there means Idahoans get exposed to a conservadem, will see that a person can be a D and still be conservative, and perhaps be more willing to give other Ds a chance.

The second camp says, yes, Walt is conservative, we knew that, but he's going too far. He's to the right of Bill Sali, fer cryin' out loud. He's a darling of the Club for Growth, and he's the most conservative member of the Northwest delegation, even counting Republicans. Most damning, he's not supporting the signature issue of the moment, one he said he'd support; health care reform. He's a Johnny One Note, viewing everything narrowly through the lens of federal spending.

Well, there it is. Two camps. Walt has succeeded in doing something that lately the Republicans haven't been able to do; he's divided Idaho Democrats.

Helpful criminal

Meet Michael Russo, of Meridian, who was arrested last night and charged with rape.



In such crimes, identifying the perpetrator can be difficult. It's a horrific experience to suffer, it's traumatic, and it's often in less than ideal conditions. The victim probably isn't thinking about ID'ing the rapist later. So, thanks, Mike, for the stand out haircut, a nice detail that should be easy to remember.

Somebody call the secret service

Rex Rammell was at some fundraiser criticizing Gov Otter for not getting a wolf tag, and some bigoted idiot hollered something about an "Obama tag." Rex joked along and said,

The Obama tags? We'd buy some of those.

Well, I gotta say that I hope the Secret Service has a visit with both Rex and the fool who shouted that out.

No, not fool; despicable racist traitor. Advocating the assassination of the President is both a crime and a morally loathsome act. It's not anywhere near funny, and anyone who laughed at it obviously does not believe in American values.

Like him or not, Obama was elected as President by the majority of Americans; a large majority. Calling for killing him, no, not just killing him, hunting him and then killing him like an animal, proves on its face that the person who said it does not believe in democracy. Apparently neither does Rex Rammell, who offered to participate in hunting and killing our President.

Or maybe Rex does believe in our democratic values and doesn't really want to hunt and kill our President. In which case, we can conclude something else about him. He's stupid; dumb as a slug, since he doesn't know that advocating killing the President is a crime and antithetical to American values.

Or, maybe he's not dumb, maybe he got caught off guard and responded poorly. In which case we can conclude that he's slow, can't think on his feet, and is absolutely willing to say something that goes against his core values because he was startled.

Or, most likely, he's a sycophantic coward. Suck up to the bigots and racists calling for the hunting and killing of our President, you lickspittle. Oh, and cowardly refuse to point out that such statements are way out of line, they're probably criminal, and they certainly reveal the shouter as a bigot and racist.

And for the rest of our political leadership; same to you. If you refuse to condemn this, you are a racist, a bigot, you condone crime, you do not believe in the democratic values America was founded on, and you are a coward. For our law enforcement leaders, this is hate speech and should be investigated and prosecuted. It's. Not. Funny. It's. A. Crime.

I hope I've made my point forcefully enough. Our President is at real risk of some incensed moron trying to assassinate him, and hate speech such as "Obama tags" just fuels the fire. Fools who laugh at such statements are complicit in them.

And, if this isn't enough to prove that Rex is a slow-thinking cretin who has no business in state government, this statement drives the point home:

He could've had someone go get it for him," he said. "Hell, he's the governor. He could've ordered the Fish and Game to give him the first tag.

Right, Rex, just like Sarah Palin thinks, the state government is a handmaiden to the Gov's personal desires. I guess that's how you'd govern; the state and all its resources and employees are your personal vassals.

Update: To be accurate, this isn't traitorous speech.

Walt's tea party

I went to the Boise Teabagger event tonight; the one at which Walt Minnick spoke. Here's my report. Not that much craziness, but, sadly, Walt disappoints. Daniel may have been going into the lion's den, but, a panderbear isn't at that much risk.



I got there at 4:30 pm (1630). Doors were to open at 1700, so I thought I'd be early to see if any marchers or craziness was happening. I planned to just stay outside and see the marchers, and see whatever ire was vented by folks who couldn't get in. Well, no craziness happened outside, and I got bored, so I went in at about 1705.

No signs, no wacky t-shirts, no one packing, didn't see any of that. Inside, once it got going, there were lots of, well, not-fact-based questions, and some anger, but they managed to control the crowd pretty well. They took questions based on the number on the raffle ticket they gave you when you entered. It was mostly an older crowd. Walt started to speak at 1718, instead of the 1800 announced start time. By 1718 (5:18 pm), a pretty good crowd had formed. I hung until 1835. Can't speak to what happened after, but Sisyphus was there and I'm sure will be able to fill us in.

I counted chairs and heads. There were 14 rows of chairs, 18 wide, or 252 seats. 10 chairs on one side of the aisle, 8 on the other. Not all seats were eventually filled. My guess; about 210, 220, or so. Decent crowd. Ignore all reported numbers over 252; well, a few folks stood at the back, 6,8, something like that, but still, there were a good number of empty seats. 220 tops. Here's the crowd.



In his opening remarks Walt emphasized how we must "pay for" any health care reform, drawing many approving hoots and much applause. Then he said, and this is a near quote: " I've met with lots of groups, (and he named some clubs and political groups) and North End Democrats, and I think that group is more likely to produce a Fox News moment than this group." Laughs and applause. Which kind of put me off, to be honest.

See, he's saying that he thinks N.E. Dems are crazier, or more volatile, then tea baggers. Well, Walt, I believe your wife A.K. used to live in the North End, in the apartments across from the Boise Co-op. How crazy is she? Plus, I guess North Enders are not really in your district, but do you have to diss them as crazier than tea baggers?

More choice moments: Someone shouted "Close the borders!" Walt replied "Actually, that's quite a useful suggestion."

Walt: "I'm enamored of the Senate Finance Committee's bipartisan effort." Kudos for getting "enamored of" right, but JTFC, the Senate Finance Committee's bill?

At 1800, Mike Crapo joined the fray via phone and Walt said "Senator Crapo is the senior member of my delegation." My? Oh, my.

Some guy stood up and talked about how he's a vet, and vet's are wonderful, and the greatest generation and all that, and bitched about euthanizing the greatest generation (no kidding, euthanizing, his words) and eventually asked (paraphrasing) "What are you gong to do about stopping euthanizing the greatest generation? Walt's response?

He praised WWII vets, emphasized his service, and sat down (to hoots of "answer the question!") He didn't point out how the guy was as crazy as a shit-house rat to think that the bill called for euthanization. What he said was, "John [Foster] (his commo director) has the bill, let's look up the actual language. Then he dropped the question and didn't return to it while I was there.

Walt: "This group is terrific."

That's it for me for tonight.

Oh, and in case you think news casting is glamorous, check out this poor Channel 7 guy wrestling with a snake's nest of cable. Note the gloves and necktie ensemble..

WTH?

I think standards are slipping down at the Sheriff's office. What kind of a mug shot is this? What's next, a mug shot of a guy wearing a Nixon mask?

Death panels

I was meeting with a social worker this afternoon to discuss options for my sister. Sis is only 57, but is declining and headed for more and more intensive care. Anyway, at one point, the social worker was asking Sis about a living will and what choices she might make. I started to laugh, and they looked at me.

It was a Sarah Palin moment. Talking about a living will, according to Palin, is a death panel. So there ya go, I've actually been through a death panel.

Epiphany

Here's an accepted story about epiphany. A man (usually) wakes up in a gutter, hideously hung over, still somewhat drunk, disheveled, retching, filled with self loathing, and has an epiphany: "I must change before I kill myself."

I like to joke that if I ever find myself watching golf or fishing on TV, that is such a moment. I think the Republican party is headed for that moment.

There are many sane Republicans (well, maybe not that many; Har!), but there is certainly a faction of Republicans who are going crazy. I mean really; bringing weapons to Presidential meetings? Saying that folks who bring weapons to Presidential events are true patriots? Trying to link Obama to Hitler because Obama is trying to provide health care to millions of folks who don't have it? Good grief.

This faction is going seriously nuts. As I've said, they've jammed the pedal to the floor of the red corvette, cranked the wheel all the way to the right, and are merrily and angrilyrighteously headed for the cliff, shooting off rounds, throwing out beer cans and screaming "Obamacare is socialism." Self-destructive crazy.

Today we learn that Tom Ridge admits that he thought it was a political decision designed to boost Bush's chances at re-election when the Bush administration pressured him to raise the stupid colored threat level right before the election. Confirming what progressives have been saying for years, and adding to the race for the cliff; politics above all, the interests of the country be damned.

I see the Republican wingnut faction as headed for an epiphany. At some point they're going to wake up in the gutter, and think, jeezus, I've got to change. What scares me is, what will be that moment? If Obama=Hitler isn't it, what is? I fear what this will be. If it's not bad enough now to shock the run of the mill Republican out of the stupor, what will it take? My guess? Some fool is going to open fire, or attempt to assassinate the President. I think it's going to happen sooner rather than later.

See, the problem right now is that sane Republicans are tolerating The Crazy for political reasons. They're not speaking out for a rational discussion. Until they do, it's going to get worse. Until they realize that crazy political gamesmanship has brought them to this minority status, they're going to tolerate it. Until they start trying to work for the country instead of for political gain, this continues. Until they wake up in the gutter, this will continue.

Government is not a business

It's common for a political candidate to run on the idea that he or she was in business, and that experience will apply to government. The politician asserts that government ought to be run like a business.

This is a load of hooey. Gov Otter has tried to use this approach, and actually seems to persist in the endeavor, despite its lack of success. His approach has been somewhat businesslike. He has acted like the boss/owner/manager in that he seems to think that he can just hand down an edict and it will be carried out. Think of last year when he demanded $240 mil (or whatever it was) for transportation. He correctly identified the need, but, he's not the boss of the legislature and can't just order it to cough up the dough, and it refused.

Otter decided to align state employee compensation with the private sector, which is admirable. He actually managed to cut benefits, which he saw as being higher that the private sector. Great. Unfortunately, he hasn't managed to raise salaries like he said he wanted to, and it appears unlikely he'll get this done. He sure hasn't been talking about it much lately. Anyway, he hasn't been able to run the state like a business, and the result is that state employees are now worse off.

State government provides services, and does not earn a profit. It the state were a business, we'd have way fewer paved roads, for example, and the rural areas would still be rattling along on dirt roads. This would hinder their agricultural production, it would hinder getting crops and goods to market, and it would hinder their access to buying products. It would reduce the selection available in the cities and probably drive up costs.

That's infrastructure, and only government can afford the huge projects. Why would Micron, or HP, or whatever business, pay to repair the old bridge over the Payette River? They wouldn't. Well, I suppose some business might, but then they're going to charge dearly to use the bridge. How about paving the road to Murphy? Who'd do that? Given the cost, if a business were to do it and charge for it, either the cost to drive on it would be prohibitive, or the pay out would take a century. It just wouldn't happen.

Things like infrastructure are so important, and so unlikely to be provided otherwise, that only government can do it. I submit that health care is infrastructure. To put it in terms that uber businessman Walt Minnick can understand, health care is an investment in human capital. Really, it's not unlike roads, safety services, electricity, water and other utilities. A productive and ordered society must have it.

Human productivity goes down when the humans are sick, or are bankrupt because of medical bills. Just like leaving the rural areas to drive on dirt roads, which hurts the rest of the state, allowing people to be hurt or ill hurts us all in lost productivity.

Counties have an indigent fund that they use to pay hospital bills of indigents. That's taxpayer money. If we had universal health care, that tax goes away, a benefit to all the citizens. (Whether it goes away or just gets shifted is another question; depends on savings in the health care system.)

Anyway, I'm really sick of hearing that government should run like a business. How maddeningly stupid. That's precisely the same as saying business should run like government. Or that a train should run like a car. Or that an airplane should run like a submarine.

Cash for clunkers by the numbers

The US government is putting $3 billion into the Cash for Clunkers program, which has 4 stated goals: stimulate the economy, help the struggling auto industry, reduce air pollution, reduce defendence of foreign oil. Let's see how it stacks up.

You can get between $3,500 and $4,500 per car from the CFC program. The $3 billion will yield 750,000 sales at the average of $4,000. If the average car sells for $15,000, this results in $11,250,000,000 in new car sales.

If each car gets 5 mpg better gas mileage, that's 3,750,000 saved miles. If the traded in cars averaged 15 mpg, that's 250,000 gallons of gas saved, which @ $2.60 per gallon, that's $650,000 per year saved. If the clunkers got off the road an average of 5 years sooner, that's total savings of $3,250,000 for drivers.

I guess it varies, but a Physics prof says we get about 20 gallons of gasoline per each 42 gal of oil. So, the 250,000 gallons of gas saved divided by 20 = 12,500 barrels of oil saved. At $70 per barrell, that's $900,000 not sent to Venezuela or Saudi Arabia.

Each gallon of gasoline produces 20 lbs of carbon dioxide, times 250,000 gallons, equals 5,000,000 pounds of carbon dioxide saved.

So, we get over $11 bil in stimulous to the economy, 750,000 new cars are sold, we reduce air pollution by 5 mil pounds of CO2, and we send almost $1 bil less to regimes that hate us. Looks like a winner.

But wait, you say, most of those cars would have been sold eventually anyway, this just speeded things up. I guess to a certain extent, that's true, but completely unquantifiable. Also, making that argument just reinforces that the CFC program is giving a quick boost to the economy, it is helping the auto industry in a slow period, it is reducing air pollution more quickly, and it will send less $$$ overseas. It speeded things up.

Fair and balanced

I've been dogging Walt Minnick lately, mostly because I'm so disappointed in him. As I've said, I'm willing to give Walt's inner Republican plenty of space to operate, but I expect him to be there for us on the really important stuff, like health care.

So that not everything I say is negative, here are some quotes from an article in a recent Lewiston Tribune favorable to Walt. Thanks to Walt's commo director John Foster for the info. (And boy am I glad I don't have his job.)

"Whether we can govern effectively and govern from the middle will determine the future of Western Democrats and the fate of the country," said Minnick,

"During the years when we were organizing and broadening our party, Karl Rove and George Bush were doing their damnedest to narrow theirs," he said. "They alienated fiscal conservatives by going to war and not paying for it. They alienated the educated by subordinating science to an ideological filter. They alienated libertarians who oppose government intrusion in our bedrooms. And they alienated minorities and the poor by catering to the rich and by governing in a consistently partisan fashion."

Now, I agree with this, to a point. I'm not so sure that partisanship itself was the problem, as much as partisanship in favor of heinous policies like perpetual war, spying on Americans, torture as national policy, and structuring the economy in order to make rich people richer and richer and richer and ignore the poor and middle class.

"That's the issue that will determine whether we continue to govern," Minnick said. "Bush doubled the national debt, from $5 trillion to $10 trillion. (President Barack) Obama, under the most optimistic assumptions, is going to double it again in another eight years. If we add to that the unfunded mandates like Social Security and Medicare, we're looking at $50 (trillion) to $60 trillion in debt."

The annual interest payments on that alone would amount to $5,000 for every person in the country, he said.

"That lower standard of living is the legacy we're leaving our children," Minnick said. "If we're going to govern very long, we must acknowledge that uncomfortable fact. I told the president two weeks ago, it's essential we make a commitment, as soon as the economy is recovered, that we will craft a plan to get back to a balanced budget."

I agree with this, but what I don't get is why Walt doesn't acknowledge that health care costs have to be brought under control somehow, because they are a millstone around the neck of the economy. The economy can't get going well until we stop siphoning off so much toward health care. I guess he agrees we should get health care costs under control, but he doesn't seem to get that health care is a big part of what's wrong with our economy.

"I would argue that Idaho is perhaps the most important state for Democrats," Minnick said. "If we can craft a formula that wins in Idaho, or in Utah, then we can dominate the national political scene for the next generation."

Despite some encouraging signs, he said, it's still unclear whether Democrats will work toward bipartisan solutions to these enormous problems - and if it doesn't, "we will alienate the independents and moderates who gave us the majority we enjoy today."

As I've written, until Republicans get responsible, bipartisanship is a fool's errand. Right now, given the philosophy of the Party of No that only political advantage matters and to hell with the needs of the country, the more we cede to them, the worse off we are.

Sara takes a shot

Sara takes a shot at Walt Minnick for his stand on health care. Money quote:

Mr. Minnick, you're the congressman here - you have some kind of power to change things, and just saying "nope, not good enough" is a little half-assed in my mind. I thought the Democratic majority was supposed to do away with the "party of no" nonsense. But I was naive.

My only quibble with Sara is that she is assuming Walt is a Democrat.

Savvy move

The Obama Justice Dept released today a bunch of documents related to the U.S. attorney firings scandal, including transcripts of depositions of Karl Rove and Harriet Miers.

That should knock the crazies attending town halls on health care off the air. Nice distraction move. Way to play the media. Plus, all the wingnuts will now have to start defending Rove, Gonzalez and the Bush administration instead of carping about death panels. Nice.

Honesty and leadership

I'd really like to see Idaho's politicians display these two virtues a bit more.

Walt Minnick seems to feel the need to buck his party and help Republicans kill health insurance/care reform. Voting against it on the principle of holding the line against government spending is defensible, I guess, though seems more of an excuse that a reason. So if you truly support reform, Walt, please help spread correct information, and help kill the crazy disinformation being spewed by reform opponents.

Use your forums to state clearly that the reform is not going to allow euthanization, or death panels, or fund abortion, or provide health insurance to illegal immigrants. It's not voting, it's just helping Idahoans get the truth so they can understand. Even if you can't vote, you can help inform the voters, can't you?

Governor Otter, I'd like to see you show some leadership on health insurance/care reform. Idaho is in a budget crisis, and will be for a while. You cut benefits to state employees and did not raise their pay, because of the budget problems. Well, we all know that health insurance is a huge expense for the State. Why, then, aren't you in there pitching for reform that will save money?

Sen Crapo, please stop trying to fool us.

"We're not trying to drag this thing out so nothing happens," Crapo said.

Really?

DeMint told Conservatives for Patients Rights that killing President Obama’s health care plan would be good politics for those resistant to changing Washington. “If we’re able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him,” he said.

Sen. Risch could also use a dose of honesty.

"The timetable they are on is frightening for a system that is arguably the best health-care system in the world," said Sen. Jim Risch.

No, it's not arguably the best. It's mediocre at best. For example, the CIA lists the US at #50 in life expectancy. The US is again in the middle of the pack when looking at infant mortality, with 6.26 deaths per 1,000 live births. 44 other countries do better, including Cuba and Bermuda.

And as far as a timetable, we've tried to have health insurance/care reform since the Truman administration, and of course, again in 1993 with the Clinton administration. So, what is your timetable? Never?

The fallacy of bipartisanship

Today I heard a radio interview of Walt Minnick, in which he said (I’m paraphrasing, but it’s close) “We need to govern from the center, and we need to govern in a bipartisan way, or we’ll lose the majority of the country.”

I agree we should govern from the center, if it’s the center of the majority party that was just placed in power. The would be way off to the left of Walt, though, so I doubt he meant that.

The part that I really take issue with is the alleged need to be “bipartisan.” Being bipartisan is getting the country nowhere. Right now, the Republican Party has decided that it’s politically expedient to prevent anything from getting done, so that Democrats can’t get credit for anything. Since the R’s are pretty much captured by the wingnut wing of the party, their goal is not what is in the best interest of the country, but what is in the best interest of the conservative faction of the Republican Party.

Being bipartisan is simply empowering Republicans to prevent Democrats from implementing the policy agenda they were elected on. Walt and his fellow Lap Dog Democrats are helping stymie what the country wants.

Do you doubt this? Look, the country just installed a Democratic President who campaigned on this agenda, it has given the Senate Democrats a filibuster-proof majority, and it has given the House a commanding Democratic majority. Way, way more people are represented by Democrats in Congress than are represented by Republicans. Americans want the change Democrats said they’d bring.

Bipartisanship is just the Trojan Horse they’re tying to use to pull this off. And Walt has fallen for it.

Boise Beer Fest

I made it to the Boise Beer Fest on Saturday, arriving around 2:30 PM. It was wildly popular, or at least, extremely well attended, so much so that I think it would be more accurately name the Boise Drunk Fest. I'll explain that in a minute.

We arrived, and encounted a pretty lengthy line to get in, caused by the need to check IDs, stamp your hand, and attached a wristband. The line went pretty quickly, and soon we were at the first decision point. Buy a mug ($5) and then buy however many tokens we might want ($1 ea), or buy a mug and 17 tokens for $25, a saving of $2. so, my campanion and I bought one mug with 17 tokens, and one other mug. The tokens were supposed to be good for one 4 oz pour. The mugs were 12 oz, I think, and the pours varied. Some were generous, some not so much.

As attested to by the long line, lots of folks showed up. Which was a problem. It seemed that the head count might have taken the organizers by surprise. About the time we got there, the lines to get a taste of beer began to lengthen. Pretty soon you could drink your 4 oz pour while standing in line for another. Because it took so long just to get a beer, most polks used 2-3 tokens at a time to get a full mug so they wouldn't have to stand in line so long. But, that made it tough to taste very many different beers.

So people mostly drank the beer, instead of moving around doing tastings. Lines for food were equally as long. We waited about 30 minutes in line to get a couple of tacos. So, they needed more food, a larger space, and more taps to pour the beer. Also, instead of clustering all the taps under two large tent tops, they should spread the taps around so you're not all crammed into the same space.

The organizers put together a good fest, and particularly scored kudos with the porta-potty array. Plenty of them, and basically no waiting. Decent entertainment. And I did get to try a number of decent beers before it got too crowded.

DADT

Gay and lesbian activists are unhappy with the Obama administration for not doing away with the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. As you recall, the policy was implemented early in the Clinton administration as a way to protect gays in the military. The idea being, if you are gay but no one in the military knows it, you are supposed to be left alone.

This was to prevent going after someone who is just suspected to be gay, and harassing him or her. Essentially it means that if you've done no overt act or made no statement indicating you're gay, then you're protected.

Gays want to serve in the military, and be open about their sexual orientation. They point to other countries where this seems to work, and argue that we can do it here. Maybe we can. I'm pretty much a live and let live kind of guy, and gays in the military wouldn't bother me to be around, work for, or have work for me. But, it's complicated.

First, an anecdote. My sister was an officer in the Navy. While in port in the Philippines, armed sailors patrol the deck to keep Filipinos from getting on board and stealing, or whatever. However, her boss wouldn't let her do the patrol, because she was female. When she asked, the boss said, yes, of course you can do the job. However, he thought that the invader would be more likely to attack her than a man, and thus it was more dangerous for her. She wasn't the problem, it was who she might have to deal with.

Likewise, I'm not so sure it would be gays that would be a problem, it's reaction to them. There are louts who would act against gays and cause trouble, but I think the military has the discipline to deal with them. But there's a group of folks who have a bad reaction to gays even though they take no act against them.

Here's a true story from my experience in Iraq. A young male soldier got an email out of the blue from another male soldier, asking if he was gay, stating that the sender was gay and was attracted to the other soldier, and asking if he might like to get together. I read the email, it was polite and respectful, but carried a very disturbing message for the recipient.

The recipient reported it, we did a bit of research, found the sender, and per DADT discharged him and sent him home. The gay soldier had been a fine soldier and productive in his unit. Had he not sent the email, he might well still be in.

The problem was the reaction of the recipient. He was a young man from rural Montana. Not a homophobe, that I could tell, but not enlightened on the issue either. Well this fellow went into a deep depression for a while, thinking that he comes across as gay, something he did not want. He really started questioning himself and his appearance and behavior. He was wondering what other soldiers thought about him. This kid was very shaken up by the experience, for quite a while. He just read an email out of the blue, and it rocked his world in a bad way. The one at fault? The gay guy. If he had followed the policy, everything would have been fine. Sexual relations and PDAs were forbidden to everyone, so gays weren't any more deprived that anyone else in that area.

Actually, in at least one case, they were better off. Soldiers shared living quarters, and two lesbian girlfriends managed to room together. But they kept their mouths shut, followed the policy, and both are still serving.

DADT may not be all what gays and lesbians want, but it's not all bad, either.

Health care

Democrats are trying to enact health insurance (or health care) reform, and Republicans (and Lap Dog Democrats) are trying to kill it.

I really don't understand why any thinking person would be against health care for all. It just seems so fundamental to being a productive citizen. The opposition is entrenched interests that are making good money off the current system and don't want it to change.

Folks who want the free enterprise system to control health care, and say it will lead to the best system, are either sadly uninformed, total tools of corporate interests, or just plain stupid. No one shops around for the cheapest doctor. Few people have the knowledge to, few have the time to, and it's just not how health care works. After you've stripped and been poked and prodded and probed, you're not of a mind to go looking to save a few dollars by repeating the experience. Besides, who what their spleenectomy done by the cheapest guy in the phone book?

Health care is not a free enterprise system. If it were, doctors would not enjoy the monopoly they do. We'd let anyone deliver health care, and figure that a rational and efficient consumer would pay for the level of expertise and credentials necessary for their particular health issue .

Health care, like infrastructure, like peace and security, is too integral to a productive populace to allow it to be hijacked by folks bleeding it for money. That is, I don't think that health care should be a profit making endeavor, any more than police work or fire prevention is. As a society we need it and it should be supplied by the government. If private industry can find needs not served or ill served by the government, then fine, move in and make money there.

I'm not saying that docs, nurses, hospitals, etc., all should be owned by or employees of government. Individuals earn a living and are paid, but the don't exactly make a "profit." For profit hospitals and for profit insurers and administrators either ought not be allowed, or they should be regulated like a utility. Instead of delivering electricity or water, they deliver health care. Deliverers of health care should be paid enough to do the job, but should not have incentives to increase "profit."

I come to this view informed in large part by my experience with Boise's VA hospital. I only started using it after I returned from deployment, and for the 20+ prior years I used private health care. I gotta say, the VA is at least as good as the private suppliers, and in most cases, it's better. Example: when I need a prescription refilled, I call and tap in a little info using my phone keys, and about 3 days later the prescription arrives in the mail. 90 day supply, $24. BTW, the Dept of Defense is allowed to negotiate pricing with drug makers.

Diversity day

The Idaho Army and Air Guard got together, which they do rarely, to have a joint celebration for Diversity Day, and also had a Family Day. So, lots of family activities, entertainment, and food. Below is your basic sumo wrestling deal. Since it was about 100 degrees that afternoon, so hopping around in those sumo suits was a sweaty endeavor. They're not shown, but part of the outfit was a helmet made to look like a top knot. Which added even more heat. (Click to enlarge the pix)



Another pic showing some of the stuff happening. In the foreground of this pix is a bungee/trampoline combo. So you could jump around and do flips and what not that you'd never try on a real tramp.



They reinforced the diversity theme with the food. There was Mexican, Italian, Chinese, Brazilian, Mediterranean, and more. No hot dogs or hamburgers. Also, no beer. The pic below shows some kind of Brazilian fried thing, with taco fixings in the background.

This would be the Italian food table; lasagna, pasta, salad, etc.


Table had the Mediterranean food. Rice stuffed grape leaves, hummus, grilled vegetables with Mediterranean seasoning, and more.



This young fella had a plate full.



They had Irish Dancers, a couple of Mariachi bands, African drums, folk music, and more. Really did it up nice. Unfortunately, I had to leave before it was over, because the longer I was there, diverse I felt.